Toll Free

Newsletter Signup

4 Key Things to Consider Before Starting HubSpot Content Marketing

Content is your direct line to potential, current, and future customers. It’s versatile; a single piece can be formatted to fit a variety of your needs, ranging from newsletters to blogs to social media and more. It can be used over and over again with a simple shift that retargets it to new audiences. It increases your reach, improves your return on investment, and sets your company up as a key industry resource.

As you work to develop your content marketing strategy and evaluate your specific content marketing agency service needs, it’s important to first take stock of your current content, your ability to produce content, and the different components required for a successful deployment. Consistency is key, whether it’s completed by your internal team or through tools like HubSpot.

Here are some key things to do before getting started with a content marketing agency.

Make sure to include different types of content materials, like longform guides, infographics, white papers, videos, and guest contributed content that is featured on other sites. For blogs and website pages, look for tools online that will “crawl” your site and offer you a list of URLs to filter which pieces have been integral in your content marketing efforts. This will give you an overview of the quantity of content.

Next, you’ll want to dive deeper into your existing content and evaluate how relevant your current content is to your audience and business goals. The qualitative metrics help determine where you need to direct your efforts and how a content marketing agency can best support your success.

In the content audit, you should collect information like target audience, position in the funnel, used keywords, internal links, as well as key performance indicators for engagement.

Here’s a quick rundown of the categories you can add to your content audit sheet:

Page title

Target audience

Buyer’s journey

Target keyword

Inbound links

Page visits

Page bounce rate

Average time on page

CTA (calls to action)

Social shares

Number of comments

A content audit, both qualitative and quantitative, is something a content marketing agency can help you perform to ensure you take full advantage of HubSpot’s Content Marketing tools.

How much content your internal team can handle

Once you’ve taken account of the quantitative and qualitative data from your current content and your audience’s engagement level with different types of content, you’ll want to evaluate how much content your internal team can create. Remember to keep in mind their current work role’s duties and expectations.

#1: Quality

Different types of content require different levels of detail, imagery, SEO development, and distribution. Long-form white papers are effective for engaging prospective customers in the consideration stage. Potential customers are exploring solutions and how your company can offer the best remedy. Blogs, on the other hand, can attract prospective customers through search engine optimization.

#2: Quantity

Based on your content, you’ll have a better idea of where your audience tends to engage the most as well as potential areas for improvement. On average, companies that publish 16+ blog posts per month see 3.5x more traffic than companies that publish 0-4 times a month. In addition to blog posts, you’ll want to consider email newsletters, social media, videos, and other content formats that may require equal, less, or more frequency.

#3: Consistency

Content helps to shape and enforce your brand’s look and feel. Your content, in all avenues, should reflect the same voice, tone, and style. You’ll also want a content plan that is consistent. This gives the reader a set expectation of where and how often to expect new material; establishing your company as a go-to resource.

#4: Strategy

In the end, you don’t want to create content for the sake of creating content. Each piece should target a particular audience, buyer persona, and deliver information that is relevant.

How you will syndicate your content

Syndication is the process of publishing or copying your content. Content syndication can get you new exposure and support your company as an industry resource.

For starters, you’ll want to consider the places that you plan to syndicate. Next, determine which industry publications you want to pitch: audience size and type, timeliness, and the format. A single piece can be leveraged multiple times.

Lead generation doesn’t end after the initial publication. In fact, HubSpot has recorded that of their own blog leads, 90% came from old posts. Your content continues producing results weeks, months, even a year after publication. Being featured in key industry publications increases your brand’s reputation.

Be consistent and meet audience expectations

Beyond maintaining a consistent voice, tone, and style in all of your content formats, you also need to keep in mind the consistency of the quantity of content you publish— how much, when, and where.

Create a habit for your readers to continue going back to your website for new blog posts. Never let them wonder when to expect the weekly emailed newsletters, where to read about your white paper findings, how to discover new product releases and highlights, and when they might see social media updates.